ABU DHABI // The UAE may not have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention but it already fulfils many of the requirements, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday.
António Guterres said Islamic law provides the same essential framework as the one which the UN refugee agency, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), operates to protect refugees.
Mr Guterres was speaking in the capital, where he last night relaunched the UN's appeal for US$7 billion (Dh25.7bn) of humanitarian aid.
"If there is any historical root of modern refugee law it is to be found in Islamic law, in the holy Quran, in the surah and hadeeth of the Prophet," he said. "When I come to the UAE I don't need to invoke for the protection of refugees the 1951 convention, for me it's enough that the norms of Islamic law are applied."
One of the key principles that guides the protection of refugees - non-refoulement, meaning that no one should be sent back against their will to a place where they may face persecution - is inherent in Islamic law, he said.
The idea that protection must be granted to "believers and non-believers" is enshrined in Islam.
However, Mr Guterres stressed he would still encourage the UAE to ratify the convention and become party to the "modern refugee instruments". This would also allow the UAE to join UNHCR's governance body, which has 76 states among its members.
"We want it to be truly global and we don't want it to be dependent on any part of the world. The voice and the influence of the UAE and the Arab world in general is something we would like to see strengthen our own organisation," he said.
Mr Guterres, 59, a former Portuguese prime minister, was elected by the UN General Assembly in 2005 to a five-year term as the head of an agency that works in 110 countries, providing assistance to 33 million refugees.
He described the UAE as having a "tradition of generosity in humanitarian action". However, while aid from the UAE has been traditionally channelled on a bilateral level, the high commissioner said he would encourage more action through multinational institutions.
"[This] would allow, in my opinion, the UAE to have a stronger voice and a stronger influence in the international humanitarian community, and within the UN system," he said.
Mr Guterres paid tribute to the legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed, who not only left the country with "national unity, political stability, and economic prosperity", but also a "great commitment to humanitarian aid".
The relationship between UNHCR and the UAE was bolstered this year with the opening of an office in the capital.
In addition, 2008 saw the launch of the Sheikha Fatima Fund - a joint UNHCR and UAE Red Crescent Authority programme providing assistance to refugee and internally displaced women and children through income-generating projects and support to health and education. The fund is supporting programmes in Yemen and Afghanistan.
With Iraq showing signs of improvement, Mr Guterres said the agency's current regional concerns lay in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan. The high commissioner also pointed to what he described as the oldest and most protracted refugee problem in the world - that of the Palestinians. A separate agency - the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) - provides services to more than 4.6 million registered Palestininian refugees in the Middle East, including one million in the Gaza Strip, into which humanitarian aid is currently being barred by an Israeli blockade.
"The key question for us is that humanitarian aid should be able to enter into Gaza and be distributed to those that badly need it," Mr Guterres said. "It is very important in today's world to be able to distinguish the political dimension of conflicts and the humanitarian requirements."
Meanwhile, neglecting so-called forgotten crises, such as that in the Central African Republic, constitutes a "very serious sin of mankind, a sin of neglect," he said.
Given the global economic downturn, Mr Guterres said there was a definite concern about the impact on donations to the humanitarian system, which is asking for US$7bn through its new Consolidated Appeal Process. While the world spends billions of dollars on financial rescue packages, determination should also be paid to rescuing "victims of conflict, victims of natural disasters, victims of the modern trends of climate change and its impact, and the victims of extreme poverty".
"There is a quote from Bob Marley in one of his songs, 'A hungry man is an angry man'. Humanitarian support is not only a question of charity, it's also a question of enlightened self-interest," he said.
"I would appeal to the intelligence of the rich and powerful in today's world to understand that to support those in need, is also a way to preserve peace, to preserve stability and to allow for the interest of everybody to be taken into consideration."
@Email:zconstantine@thenational.ae
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
MO
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French Touch
Carla Bruni
(Verve)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
SCHEDULE FOR SHOW COURTS
Centre Court - from 4pm (UAE time)
Angelique Kerber (1) v Irina Falconi
Martin Klizan v Novak Djokovic (2)
Alexandr Dolgopolov v Roger Federer (3)
Court One - from 4pm
Milos Raonic (6) v Jan-Lennard Struff
Karolina Pliskova (3) v Evgeniya Rodina
Dominic Thiem (8) v Vasek Pospisil
Court Two - from 2.30pm
Juan Martin Del Potro (29) v Thanasi Kokkinakis
Agnieszka Radwanska (9) v Jelena Jankovic
Jeremy Chardy v Tomas Berdych (11)
Ons Jabeur v Svetlana Kuznetsova (7)
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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